Budget Breakdown: A Tiny Red Addition Adds a Radical Amount of Utility for a Family of Four

In 2017, Zuzana Fuhrmannova and her partner, Tomas Binder, began renting a small house in Nečín, a village in the Czech Republic’s Central Bohemian region about 25 miles south of Prague. Zuzana, a property manager who works from home about once a week, had been looking for a suitable place to raise her then two young sons from a previous marriage. She found out about the rental, an approximately 1,146-square foot weekend cabin, through an acquaintance and reached out to the owner. They settled on an unusual agreement: instead of paying rent, they would partially renovate the house.

"We cleared it out, converted the attic into living space, put in a kitchen, and made other minor improvements," says Tomas, who works mostly from home in online marketing. "The renovation was done on a very tight budget, with only the absolute essentials so that the four of us could somehow live there."

A few years later, the couple decided to make an offer on the home. It took a year to convince the owner to sell—"he had an emotional attachment to the house," Tomas says—but they closed in 2020. As it was now the family of four's permanent home, they called on Prague studio Facha Architekti for another round of improvements. "They wanted to create a home that would support everyday family living and working from home, while keeping operating costs as low as possible," says Matej Nepustil, one of the four architects who make up Facha. "They also wanted the house to be a welcoming place to host gatherings with family and friends."

Facha enlarged the main living space, relocated the entrance, and enhanced the connection to the garden, all of which was achieved by adding a bold, red extension to the west side of the house. "We liked the original volume of the house and did not want to redefine it," says Nepustil. "The extension was conceived as a clearly legible addition, deliberately distinguishable from the older building."